Optical transceivers are used to transmit and receive optical signals for various applications including, without limitation, internet data center, cable TV broadband, and fiber to the home (FTTH) applications. Optical transceivers provide higher speeds and bandwidth over longer distances, for example, as compared to transmission over copper cables. The desire to provide higher speeds in smaller optical transceiver modules for a lower cost has presented challenges, for example, with respect to thermal management, insertion loss, and manufacturing yield.
Optical transceiver modules generally include one or more transmitter optical subassemblies (TOSAs) for transmitting optical signals and one or more receiver optical subassemblies (ROSAs) for receiving optical signals. In general, TOSAs include one or more lasers to emit one or more channel wavelengths and associated circuitry for driving the lasers. In general, ROSAs include a demultiplexer and one or more lenses to receive and de-multiplex channel wavelengths for output as a proportional electrical signal.
The demand for high speed data communication continues to increase due to the prevalence of FTTH and other data services. The standardization for 100G Ethernet was completed in 2010, and since then the adoption of 100G Ethernet transceivers continues to grow. Manufacturers of optical transceiver modules face non-trivial challenges related to reducing costs without sacrificing performance. For example, at data rates of 25 Gb/s and greater, transmitter optical subassemblies (TOSAs) become a major portion of the overall costs to manufacture optical transceiver devices.